communicating and building relationships · based and cross-cultural communication styles, build...

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How can you make the communication process work for you?

A model of communication Receiving the message Decoding the message and forming a response Encoding the response Transmitting the response

How can you use non-verbal behaviours to communicate more effectively?

How can understanding gender styles improve your ability to communicate on the job?

How can understanding cultural differences improve your ability to manage cross-cultural relationships?

What cross-cultural differences interest managers? Perceptual differences Non-verbal differences Differences in attitudes and values Personality differences Differences in psychological contracts

How can you develop your cross-cultural interactive skills? Using the Big Five personality theory Understanding your tolerance for ambiguity

Evaluating differences in values Developing cultural intelligence Understanding culture shock

How do you build trust in relationships? What is trust? How do you create trusting relationships? Trust and lying

How do you persuade others? The communicator The message The audience

What relational strengths do you already have? Which skills do you need to develop?

Communication competencies Self-monitoring Personal orientation to others Active listening

What are some tested tactics for doing well on job interviews?

Making a good first impression Presenting yourself favourably

Communicating and Building Relationships

Chapter Takeaways AFTER READING THIS CHAPTER, YOU SHOULD BE ABLE TO ANSWER THE FOLLOWING QUESTIONS:

Communicating in the Global Marketplace

We hear about corporate communication goofs all the time. “Come alive with the Pepsi generation!” when translated

for the Chinese market became “Pepsi brings your ancestors back from the grave!” Gerber tried selling baby food in

Africa using its traditional packaging—a cute baby on the label, along with the name of the food. Only trouble was,

in Africa, where literacy is lower, the picture on a jar always shows what the product is.

There’s a lot more to global communication than meets the eye. Today people routinely chat across time zones

and even days. You are working in Hamilton, Ontario, and need to contact your colleague in New Zealand. Let’s see,

what time is it there? For that matter, what day is it? A Hamiltonian’s rule of thumb is that New Zealand is 10 hours

ahead and one day behind. (But is that with or without daylight savings time?)

Communicating globally involves understanding a host of issues involving differences in language, culture, and

time. The person who becomes really good at it will first master being a good communicator at home. . . .

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CHAPTER 3 • COMMUNICATING AND BUILDING RELATIONSHIPS 69

In this chapter we explore interpersonal communication , the

exchange of thoughts, opinions, or information by speaking, writ-

ing, or other means. 1 Understanding communication helps you

turn the communication process into a practical business tool. In

this chapter, for instance, you will learn how to evaluate gender-

based and cross-cultural communication styles, build trust in rela-

tionships, persuade others, evaluate your personal communication

style, recognize some of your current communication strengths

and weaknesses, and use your knowledge of communication to

build effective work relationships. How important is it to be a good communicator? Consider

that today executive coaching is a big business that revolves

around helping people to build better relationships through

communication . 2

How Can You Make the Communication Process Work for You? English speakers often describe the communication process using the conduit metaphor,

which assumes that language transfers thoughts and feelings from person to person rather

like a pipe transfers water from place to place. This metaphor suggests that speakers and

writers transfer their thoughts and feelings into words, that words contain the thoughts and

feelings, and that listeners or readers somehow extract the thoughts and feelings from the

words. 3

The conduit metaphor for communication has its uses, and, in fact, we use it to organize

this discussion, but it has an unfortunate side effect too. The problem is that it suggests that

communication is a straightforward, free-flowing process that requires little effort, which is

far from the truth. 4 This belief may lead organizational leaders to devote few resources to

programs that help employees become better communicators when, in reality, most employ-

ees would benefit from such programs.

In particular, we should all be sensitive to the fact that people themselves individually

determine the meanings of words, and that meanings are not “transferred.” 5 Words do not

mean, people mean. The result is that communicators inevitably communicate unintended

meanings, and receivers create meanings and act on the basis of their own meanings. The

receiver’s meaning may or may not reflect the communicator’s intended meaning.

Consequently, there is a certain amount of unintentionality in the communication

process. Unintentionality is one aspect of noise , which is defined as any disturbance that

disrupts the communication process. The object of improving communication is to reduce

noise and increase understanding of what is actually meant. Imagine you have a “communication problem.” The first step in solving it is to answer

this question: What exactly do you mean when you say you have a communication prob-

lem? As you will see next, the answer can be fairly complex.

A Model of Communication See Figure 3.1 on page 70 for a model that suggests how the communication process works.

Various aspects of communication can be understood using this model. Most com-

monly the model refers to how we use language. When someone speaks to us, we hear

them, figure out what they really mean, think about what we want to say, figure out how

to say it, and then speak our response—sometimes all in an instant. However, events other

than speech also communicate. A scent communicates, for example. When you receive the

message that your nose has perceived a scent, you might decode that scent as “strong per-

fume,” form the response “better avoid this person who uses too much perfume,” encode

the response “be polite but escape,” and transmit your response by smiling politely and

easing away.

Source: © John Morris/CartoonResource.com

communication The exchange of thoughts, opinions, or information by speaking, writing, or other means.

unintentionality The communication of unintended meanings.

noise Any disturbance that disrupts the communication process.

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70 CHAPTER 3 • COMMUNICATING AND BUILDING RELATIONSHIPS

Here is an example of how the verbal communication process works in practice. The

situation is that of an employee who has just complimented the boss on his new suit.

The Boss

Receives the message: That employee has just complimented me on my new suit.

Decodes the message: I’m being “buttered up” (flattered).

Forms a response: Be polite, but don’t let him think he can butter me up so easily.

Encodes the response: Smile and say “thank you” but don’t encourage more behav-

iours such as this one.

Transmits the response: The boss smilingly says, “Thank you,” but does not stop to talk.

The Employee

Receives the message: My boss gave me a friendly smile but left abruptly.

Decodes the message: Is the boss just being polite?

Forms a response: I should be careful not to overdo it. I’ll turn the compliment

into a joke.

Encodes the response: “I have one exactly like it!”

Transmits the response: (calling lamely after the boss as he recedes down the hall) “I

have one too!”

As you can deduce from the complexities and subtleties in this example, there are many

places where communication can go wrong. Even what seem to be simple exchanges of

information are often misinterpreted. To help you become a better communicator, let’s

examine some common issues that arise at each phase in the communication process.

Receiving the Message To begin, we must pay attention to how we receive a message. Many communication prob-

lems can be traced back to this crucial process.

UNDERSTANDING THE MESSAGE The first issue is clarity: Did you hear and understand the

message the way the sender intended? Not only are messages complex, but human abilities

to receive them are imperfect, subject to factors such as perceptual errors and information

overload that create noise.

So when you receive an important communication, it is a good idea to check it out

with the sender in this way: “I heard you say x . Can I please take a moment to check out

Person A Person B

Receives a message

Decodes the message

Forms a response

Encodes the response

Transmits the response

Receives a message

Decodes the message

Forms a response

Encodes the response

Transmits the response

FIGURE 3.1

A Model of Communication

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with you whether what I heard, and how I interpreted it, are what you intended? Okay?

Here’s what I heard . . .”

SELECTIVE ATTENTION Another factor in the communication process is the problem of

selective attention . At any given moment we humans can focus on only some of the stim-

uli that come our way, while other stimuli are disregarded. If we were not designed to

perceive the world in this way, our brains would soon be overwhelmed with stimuli. To

illustrate this, take a look at the passage in Figure 3.2 , which contains two messages. Read

aloud, as quickly as possible, the message in red . Now close your eyes and answer this: How many of the words in blue can you remem-

ber? Probably not many, even though you “saw” the blue words, and many of them appear

more than once.

This exercise demonstrates how difficult it is for human beings to pay attention to

more than one thing at a time. 6 In fact, the more conscious effort that you expend in paying

attention to a message, the less likely it is that you can successfully divide your attention

with another task. Think about the implications of this principle for using your smartphone

in class or talking to your boss on the phone while simultaneously reading your email.

Some individuals pride themselves on their ability to multitask—that is, to do more

than one thing at once. However, according to Linda Stone, a researcher and former

Microsoft and Apple executive, in reality such individuals are primarily paying “continu-

ous partial attention” to a variety of inputs. 7 Thus, various media, from text messages to

face-to-face conversations, are constantly vying for a person’s undivided attention. Based

on this reality, researchers are developing media called augmented cognition systems that

know when to interrupt you . . . and when not to. An example is CogPit, a smart cockpit for

fighter aircraft that reads changes in a pilot’s brainwaves and how he or she is interacting

with the controls to determine whether the pilot’s task is too delicate to be interrupted. 8

Meanwhile, as busy people, knowing about the phenomenon of selective attention is

a prerequisite for dealing with it. Realize that at times you may miss important inputs, and

actively solicit information only when you are truly prepared to concentrate on it. And, it

bears repeating in this context, check with the sender to ensure that your interpretation of

his or her message is the same as what was intended: maybe you were not concentrating as

much as you should have been when you first heard it.

INFORMATION OVERLOAD Given human cognitive limitations, it is easy to understand how

our message-rich, responsibility-rich jobs and lives can overload us. A study by Pitney

Bowes found that an office worker sends and receives an average of 190 messages daily

in electronic and paper forms. 9 A technology monitoring firm estimated that more than

107 trillion email messages were sent over the Internet during 2010, up from 90 trillion the

prior year. 10 A British psychologist has even identified a new mental disorder caused by

too much information—the Information Fatigue Syndrome. 11

Of course, there is a big difference between miscellaneous information and useful

knowledge. Because some jobs are overloaded with information, a critical skill to develop

is information filtering . Employees may have to remind themselves (or be reminded by

their bosses) that their job is to do something for their company, not to process data.

selective attention Focusing only on some stimuli while disregarding others.

Any time students of intellect and potential DOG are CAR involved HAT in GRASS an BLUE experiment ONE like FIELD this PEN one, HOT it TAPE is TABLE incumbent CLOUD on PINK those TREE who WELL have FISH created KEY the CREAM task VIEW to DOG make CAR the HAT material GRASS as BLUE silly ONE as FIELD possible PEN while HOT making TAPE sure TABLE that CLOUD the PINK subjects TREE in WELL the FISH experi-ment KEY are CREAM treated VIEW without rancor or ridicule.

FIGURE 3.2

Read Aloud the Message in Red

information filtering Focusing only on useful knowledge rather than miscellaneous information.

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A related problem is that, when a person is overloaded, messages that are actually

important are likely to be lost or distorted. For example, while zapping all your junk mail,

you might accidentally delete a client’s email, or you might fail to read carefully the dozen

emails that all come in about the same subject.

When managers perceive a communication overload, they can do a number of things

to alleviate it. Skills that come into play include the ability to reduce input, to organize it,

and to reduce your own contribution of relatively useless messages. Sometimes managers

establish gatekeepers, such as personal assistants, to screen their inputs.

The other side of the coin is that, when you are sending a message to others who are

overloaded, confirm that your message is heard and understood. To accomplish this, man-

agers sometimes practise redundancy—for example, sending a message through more than

one channel. They might also follow up on their communication to verify whether it was

received and understood.

Decoding the Message and Forming a Response When you decode a message, you interpret its meaning both cognitively and socially. That

is, you try to figure out what exactly the communicator was trying to tell you, but also what

he or she was implying. After you decode the message, you form a response by deciding

what reply to send. As so often happens, we human beings manage to find less than perfect

ways of doing these things.

ATTRIBUTING CAUSES Why is your boss behaving in a particular way? When you answer

this question, you are making an attribution . Attribution is the process of explaining the

causes of people’s behaviour, including your own. When making attributions, we some-

times make mistakes. For example, the fundamental attribution error occurs when, in assigning causality

to another person’s behaviour (“why did she or he do that?”), we are more likely to believe

that the action was caused by the actor than to believe it was caused by the situation.

Meanwhile, if we were to ask the actor to tell us what caused the action, the actor is more

likely to say his or her behaviour was caused by the situation . 12

Here is an example of a situation leading to some fundamental attribution errors:

Behaviour: A student gets many questions wrong on a test.

Likely attribution by the professor: The professor gives little weight to the dif-

fi culty of the questions and decides the student did not study enough.

Likely attribution by the student: The student gives little weight to partying late

the night before the test and decides the test questions were unreasonable.

When making attributions, people weigh whether the behaviour they are interpreting is unique

to the particular situation (distinctiveness), whether it is consistent from situation to situation

(consistency), and whether other individuals faced with the same situation would respond in

the same way (consensus). If the behaviour is highly unique (the individual does it only once,

for instance) and other people would probably respond in the same way, a person is more

likely to say the behaviour was caused by the situation. If the behaviour is highly consistent

from situation to situation, a person is more likely to say it was caused by the individual. 13

A related error is self-serving bias . This is the tendency to attribute our successes to

our personal attributes while attributing our failures to—you guessed it!—external causes.

Why did the student get a good grade on the test? “I succeeded in that test because I am so

smart, not because it was so easy.”

CATEGORIZING Because society is complex, individuals use mental shortcuts to make

sense of it. 14 For one thing, we put people into social categories, groups of individuals that

we perceive to have similar characteristics: old and young, rich and poor, men and women.

This process obviously has some utility. For instance, it helps us figure out how to commu-

nicate with a member of a group, and it enables us to simplify how we remember people. 15

At the same time, creating social categories, or stereotypes , invites prejudice , which

is a preconceived opinion, either favourable or unfavourable, of others. It is useful to think

attribution The process of explaining the causes of people’s behaviour, including your own.

fundamental attribution error Mistakenly believing that an action was caused by the actor rather than the situation.

self-serving bias The tendency to attribute one’s su ccesses to one’s personal attributes while attributing one’s failures to external causes.

stereotypes Social categories.

prejudice A preconceived opinion, either favourable or unfavourable, of others.

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of prejudice as literally “pre-judging” an individual according to your beliefs about the

attributes of the group(s) to which that person belongs. We all need to routinely monitor

our prejudgments. For example, a problem occurs when a belief is based on an illusory correlation , the process by which we categorize an entire group based on the behaviour of

a handful of people in that group. 16 Prejudice in a one-to-one relationship is typically overcome by recognizing it and then

making an effort to get to know the other person well. The better you know a person, the

less likely you are to rely on stereotypes to understand him or her. However, experienc-

ing prejudice in a one-to-one relationship differs from experiencing it as a group member,

where a variety of social pressures make prejudice more difficult to overcome. 17

SUPPORTING PSYCHOLOGICAL IDENTITY Developing a psychological identity is known to

be a critical task of adolescence. 18 “Who am I?” is the question young people ask them-

selves as they search for groups in which they feel they belong. Yet, in fact, we continue

to shape our psychological identities throughout our lives. They are an important way in

which we locate ourselves within our social environment, and a way in which we present

ourselves to others.

As we develop ideas about our psychological identity, we imagine possible selves ,

concrete ideas about what our psychological identity is or may become. 19 Possible selves

represent individuals’ “sense of what they might become, what they would like to become,

and what they are afraid of becoming.” 20 Individuals’ possible selves change over the

course of their lives as their opportunities and constraints change. In general, people prefer individuals and activities that confirm their own identities

and will interpret events in such a way as to protect their identities. One reason people try

to manage the impression they make on others, a process called impression management , is to protect this self-concept. 21 Individuals’ choices about how to act, including what to

say, are based not only on their own needs and goals but on their interpretation of the social

world and how they believe it will receive any messages they send. 22 Thus, by attempting

impression management, individuals are not necessarily being superficial or deceptive. There are two main types of impression management. The first type is the self-

presentation strategy , which seeks to make the actor more appealing through both verbal

and non-verbal cues, including smiling, eye contact, and touching. The second type is the

other-enhancement strategy , which demonstrates that the actor favourably evaluates or

agrees with the other, including flattery, favour-doing, and opinion conformity. 23 Putting in “face time,” which is time devoted to being seen in the office whether or not

one is working, is an example of impression management. If standard work hours are 9 to

5, yet most people routinely stay in the office until 6 pretending to work, an individual may

have to decide whether it is work output or presence, or perhaps both, that is required to

impress management. 24 Of course, if an individual’s self-concept is based on goal achieve-

ment rather than pretence, she or he will find this sort of impression management very

difficult to do without feeling resentment.

Practising impression management on the job can be useful. Several studies have

shown that impression management by subordinates does improve their performance rat-

ings. 25 However, attempts to make a favourable impression on one’s boss are most likely

to be effective if the boss perceives that the employee is similar to him or her in terms of

demographics such as gender, race, and age. 26

The processes of attribution, categorizing, and protecting one’s psychological identity

are all factors that affect how you decode and respond to a message. Once you have decided

what to reply, the next step is to figure out how to get your response across to others.

Encoding the Response When encoding a response, you translate your idea into a form that others can recognize,

typically into written or spoken language. You choose the words and symbols that you

believe will best communicate your ideas.

During encoding, your most important goal is to be as clear as possible in both your

writing and speaking. However, achieving clarity is sometimes a problem. Effective

illusory correlation The process by which we categorize an entire group based on the behaviour of a handful of people in that group.

possible selves Concrete ideas about what our psychological identity is or may become.

impression management The attempt to manage the impression one makes on others.

self-presentation strategy A type of impression management that seeks to make the actor more appealing through both verbal and non-verbal cues.

other-enhancement strategy Favourably evaluating or agreeing with another person, including flattery, favour-doing, and opinion conformity.

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writing and speaking are skills that must be nurtured. For example, you have to monitor

your use of jargon , which is language comprehensible only to certain groups. For example, do you know what “eat your own dog food” means in corporate life?

At Microsoft, the phrase describes the company’s use of its own software, a mandated,

company-wide practice. 27

Transmitting the Response Your next challenge is to decide which medium , or communication channel, is the best

one for delivering your message. 28 Firing someone via text message or email is quite dif-

ferent from firing him or her in person. In short, choose your medium carefully. Two important factors to consider when choosing a medium for your message are

whether the medium is rich or lean, and whether it is formal or informal.

IS THE MEDIUM RICH OR LEAN? Media are considered rich or lean depending on the amount

and type of information they can portray and the amount of feedback they allow. A rich

medium can portray complicated information, both factual and personal, and permits a

great deal of feedback. A lean medium is best used for simple, straightforward information

without a lot of interpersonal context or the need for feedback.

Here are some common media. Which do you think is the richest medium? The

leanest?

■ Face-to-face conversation

■ Video-mediated communication

■ Telephone conversation

■ Email

■ Text message

In fact, these media are ordered top to bottom from richest to leanest. For example, if the nature

of your message is simple and straightforward, you should consider email (a lean medium).

Distributing information is an appropriate use of a lean medium. However, take into account

that not all email is equally lean: for example, text messaging among friends can be highly

creative and personal, yet too lean for student learning group projects and for business teams.

In contrast, if your message is rather vague, involving nuance and emotion (com-

plicated), you should choose a video-mediated or face-to-face conversation (rich media).

Interviewing a job candidate for a professional role is best done through a rich medium.

If the nature of your message is emotional, you should use a rich medium. (Avoid the

temptation to discuss a sensitive personnel problem in an email, for instance.) You would also

choose a rich medium, such as a face-to-face conversation, if you want more or faster feedback.

IS THE MEDIUM FORMAL OR INFORMAL? Formal channels of communication are those that

are sanctioned by your organization. One formal channel is communication via the orga-

nizational hierarchy, in which a person communicates upward, downward, or laterally.

Not all formal channels of communication are based in the existing hierarchy, however. In

fact, some are set up explicitly to avoid the hierarchy. For example, an open door policy

encourages employees to go “around” their bosses, when necessary, to take their message

to someone higher up in the organization. Anonymous employee suggestion boxes and

personnel surveys are similar channels that companies use to get around the communica-

tions problems in status and inequality that are inherent in hierarchical communication. Informal channels of communication are all those that fall outside of formal channels.

They tend to be based on informal, social, or relational networks within the organization and

may cut across the hierarchy. Sometimes called the grapevine , informal channels are an

important aspect of organizational information-sharing because they communicate informa-

tion that would not otherwise be known. 29 The grapevine often operates through informal

leaders in the organization. Of course, the quality of information in the grapevine varies.

Sometimes it is incomplete and inaccurate; other times it is the only way to get the truth. See Table 3.1 for a checklist overview of effective communication.

jargon Language that is comprehensible only to certain groups.

medium A communication channel, such as a face-to-face conversation or a text message.

open door policy A policy that encourages employees to take their message to someone higher up in the organization than their boss.

grapevine An informal channel of communication based on social or relational networks within the organization that may cut across the hierarchy

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How Can You Use Non-verbal Behaviours to Communicate More Effectively? So far, we have been considering primarily verbal (oral and written) communications. How

important is the non-verbal aspect of communication—behaviours such as our actions,

body movements, facial expressions, gestures, dress, or where we choose to deliver a mes-

sage? The answer: enormously important . For example, body language communicates two primary things: liking and openness

toward an individual, and the relative status of two individuals. 30 Facial expressions are

probably the most powerful component of body language. Smiling can convey such emo-

tions as joy, embarrassment, self-satisfaction, or approval. Eye contact is generally used to

invite social interaction, and lack of eye contact to discourage it. Men sometimes use star-

ing, which, when aimed at women, sometimes suggests claiming dominance and defining

women as sexual objects. 31

Gestures can convey many things, from insults to invitations. Touching can convey

intimacy and caring, but also, in male–female relationships, a claim to dominance.

How you move and position your body can convey status. For example, adopting a

relaxed posture in another’s presence is often an indication of higher status. When two

people are talking, the person who is sprawling back in his or her chair, arms crossed casu-

ally behind his or her head, is not likely to be the subordinate!

In general, powerful people act more freely and spontaneously, and subordinates act

more formally and self-consciously. Bosses may put their feet up on the desk or interrupt

others, whereas subordinates sit formally, speak politely, and display deference through

silence. 32

TABLE 3.1 Overview: Checklist for Effective Communication

When receiving the message . . . Check with the sender to be sure you understand the message.

Pay attention and avoid distractions.

Design your work to prevent overload.

When decoding the message and forming your response . . .

Audit your thinking for attribution errors including: ■ the fundamental attribution error. ■ self-serving bias.

Monitor your tendency to categorize.

Ask yourself how your proposed response will influence your self-concept.

Consider how your attempts at impression management may influence your self-concept.

When encoding your response . . . Strive for clarity.

Avoid jargon.

When transmitting your response . . . Choose the appropriate medium; that is: ■ a rich medium, such as face-to-face conversation,

for emotional and subtle messages, and for messag-es that require faster and more extensive feedback.

■ a lean medium, such as email, if you want concrete and precise feedback.

Choose the appropriate channel, that is: ■ a formal channel for organizationally sanctioned

communication. ■ an informal channel for all other information.

Use non-verbal forms of communication appropriately: actions, body language, facial expressions, gestures, dress, and where you are when you deliver your message.

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More powerful people also use more personal space , the area around a person that

she or he claims to maintain privacy. Men typically command more personal space than

women, and they are more likely to intrude on women’s space than vice versa. 33 The need

for personal space can also vary based on cultural norms; for example, northern European

cultures prefer more personal space than Latin American cultures. 34 Finally, where you deliver your message is also a factor. Just as a marriage proposal

offered on a lovely beach is more likely to be accepted, so the meeting held in appropriate

business surroundings is more likely to be effective.

How Can Understanding Gender Styles Improve Your Ability to Communicate on the Job? Men and women communicate differently. These differences are less obvious in written

communication, but more obvious when the communication is verbal and non-verbal. 35

Linguist Deborah Tannen has researched men’s and women’s conversational rituals in the

workplace 36 and discovered a variety of differences, including these:

■ Men are more likely than women to view an interpersonal interaction as a negotiation

of relative status and power. In a conversation, they are more likely to assert their

power by giving advice, using combative language, interrupting, and talking more

than the person they are with. 37

■ Women who ask questions are more focused on getting information, whereas men

refrain from asking questions because they are focused on the impression their asking

will make on others. Men will not ask for help because it puts them in a one-down

position. 38

■ When making a decision, women are more likely to downplay their certainty, whereas

men are more likely to downplay their doubts. 39

■ Conversational rituals that men often use include banter, joking, teasing, and playful

put-downs, and expending effort to avoid the one-down position in the interaction.

Women often try to maintain an appearance of equality. They take into account the

effect of the exchange on the other person, and downplay the speakers’ authority so

they can get the job done without being obvious about wielding power. 40

■ Men usually employ report talk , in which information is exchanged. Women also

use report talk, but they are more likely than men to engage in rapport talk , aimed at

relationship building. 41

■ Women learn that to get the best results as leaders, they should phrase their ideas as

suggestions rather than orders, and phrase their reasons for the suggestions as the

good of the group. Women tend to be overly modest and play down their authority,

a style that is easily misinterpreted as weak and indecisive. Males, on the other hand,

experience many more hierarchical groups growing up. They don’t criticize the leader

as “bossy,” because they expect the high-status boys to give orders and push low-

status boys around. 42

■ Men are more likely than women to use agonism , a warlike, oppositional format,

to accomplish a range of interactional goals that have nothing literally to do with

fighting. Men will argue heatedly and then be as friendly as ever, whereas women

are likely to take the fighting for real and be amazed that the men can still be

friends. 43

Individuals who are in the minority in a company and/or are not in powerful posi-

tions may be seen by others as different and inferior. Typically, it is women who play a

minority role, and, because of their status, in meetings they may literally not be listened to.

Tannen found that even if a man and a woman talk for exactly the same amount of time in

a meeting, people tend to think the woman talked too much. Many women she interviewed

reported they often suggest ideas in meetings, only to have them ignored. However, when

a man makes the same suggestion, people tend to listen attentively.

personal space The area around a person that she or he claims in order to maintain privacy.

report talk Conversation in which information is exchanged.

rapport talk Conversation that is aimed at relationship building.

agonism A warlike, oppositional style of interaction used to accomplish a range of interactional goals that have nothing literally to do with fighting.

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In general, a woman who acts the passively feminine role that society has traditionally

dictated for women may look weak, while a woman who acts assertively may be criticized

as bossy. This is called the double-bind . 44 It is likely to be other women, rather than men,

who have negative perceptions about assertive communication that comes from women. 45

Some women react to the problem of the double-bind by using strategies such as moderat-

ing how often they speak so as to not appear too dominating. Others decide that being seen

as aggressive is a price worth paying for being listened to. 46

How Can Understanding Cultural Differences Improve Your Ability to Manage Cross-Cultural Relationships? International business may not figure in your career plans, but if you live in any major city

in Canada, there is a strong likelihood that in your job you will work with people of diverse

races and cultures. You might even have the opportunity to work overseas for a time. This

section and the next introduce a variety of approaches that will help you manage the cross-

cultural relationships you will encounter, both here at home in Canada and abroad.

Culture is a set of shared beliefs and values about what is desirable in a commu-

nity, and the set of behaviours and practices that support these values. 47 National culture

includes the thoughts, emotions, and behaviours rooted in common values and societal

conventions of a particular society. 48 Of course, most nations also have subcultures,

groups that are themselves unique.

What Cross-Cultural Differences Interest Managers? Let’s examine some of the key cultural differences for you to be aware of when you inter-

act with diverse people in business. We will use national origin as our unit of analysis,

but of course we must keep in mind that this approach is imperfect. Within any country,

individual behavioural patterns span a wide range, and subcultures exist. Therefore, we

should use cultural knowledge not to make judgments but to form hypotheses about the

behaviour we observe.

Here are some examples of important cultural differences you may encounter.

Perceptual Differences Perceptual differences include those posed by high and low context cultures and mono-

chronic and polychronic cultures.

HIGH AND LOW CONTEXT CULTURES When interacting with others, people from high context cultures rely extensively on situational cues such as physical context, body lan-

guage, and status, whereas people from low context cultures rely extensively on explicit

codes, especially the spoken and written word. 49 Which do you think best characterizes the

Canadian culture? Canada is a low context culture, along with Switzerland, Germany, the Scandinavian

countries, the United States, and the United Kingdom. High context cultures include Japan,

China, Korea, Mexico, and the Arab countries. 50

Unless they recognize and accept their differences, individuals from low context cul-

tures may get frustrated with those from high context cultures. Problems occur when high

context types insist on spending time building relationships, won’t “get down to business,”

and won’t “put it in writing.” Because they need to establish the social context of their

relationships, people from high context cultures exchange significantly more messages

and offers during e-business negotiations than people from low context cultures. 51 For

their part, people from high context cultures may find those from low context cultures to

be pushy and impersonal, and are unlikely to trust them unless the low context individuals

change their ways.

double-bind The fact that a woman who acts the passively feminine role that society has traditionally dictated for women may be perceived as weak, while a woman who acts assertively may be perceived as bossy.

culture A set of shared beliefs and values about what is desirable in a community, and the set of behaviours and practices that support these values.

national culture The thoughts, emotions, and behaviours rooted in common values and societal conventions of a particular society.

high context cultures Cultures in which people rely extensively on situational cues such as physical context, body language, and status when interacting with others.

low context cultures Cultures in which people rely extensively on explicit codes, especially the spoken and written word, when interacting with others.

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MONOCHRONIC AND POLYCHRONIC CULTURES Cultures can also be described in terms of

polychronicity , the preference for having multiple activities occurring at the same time,

versus monochronicity , the preference for scheduling tasks separately and for focusing

on just one task at a time. 52 These have been referred to respectively as “harmonic time

vision” and “clock time vision.” 53 Polychronic cultures emphasize involving people and

completing transactions, whereas monochronic cultures emphasize adhering to schedules. In the former, individuals prefer to organize activities by scheduling two or more

events at one time, whereas in the latter they prefer to schedule only one event at a time. In

either case, individuals believe that their preference is the best way to do things.

Both individuals and their cultures can be characterized in this way. 54 Individual North

Americans are said to be monochronic relative to Latin Americans, for example. Time

for North Americans is an important commodity, to be measured and valued, whereas

in Latin America it is fluid and flexible. Interestingly, Japanese favour monochronicity

when using technology and when dealing with non-Japanese, but favour polychronicity in

almost everything else. 55

As you can imagine, the awareness of different perceptions of time may be critically

important for global teams, especially those that meet in virtual environments, and manag-

ers need to appreciate the different time perceptions that may exist among the members

of their group. 56 For example, a typical North American way to run a teleconference is to

create separate blocks of time for discussion and decision making, and require participants

to adhere to the schedule. This approach may work well with people from monochronic

cultures, such as Germans, but annoy those from polychronic cultures, such as Saudi

Arabians. The latter would probably be uncomfortable with a tightly scheduled agenda and

be less committed to stick to it.

Non-verbal Differences In cross-cultural relationships, non-verbal behaviours are always important, and this is espe-

cially true in high context cultures. In business, non-verbal behaviours include the obvious

ones such as hand gestures, posture, facial expressions, and eye contact, but also more sub-

tle ones such as interpersonal distance, walking behaviour, use of cosmetics, and silence. 57

Non-verbal differences may also include contextual factors such as architecture or graphic

symbols (for example, the pictures indicating the men’s room and women’s room).

Each non-verbal behaviour sends a message, and the message must be interpreted

with care. Each communication can mean: (1) something different in the other culture

than it does in yours; (2) nothing in your culture, but something in theirs; or (3) the same

thing in their culture as in yours. For example, the A-OK gesture we use in North America

means that things are great, but in Japan it signifies money, and in Brazil it is an obscenity.

Differences in Attitudes and Values FUNDAMENTAL VALUES ACROSS THE WORLD Are we moving toward a uniform McWorld,

in which Western cultural values dominate? Probably not. A longitudinal study of world

values including 65 societies representing 75 percent of the world’s population suggests that

economic development is certainly associated with shifts away from rigid values toward

values that are increasingly rational, tolerant, trusting, and participatory. 58 However, the

study also tells us that the broad cultural heritage of a society remains. That is, whether a

society has its roots in, for example, Confucianism, Communism, or Protestantism, that

continues to affect its culture despite modernization through economic growth.

Table 3.2 provides you with an opportunity to check your cross-cultural savvy.

THE VALUE OF WORK IN A PERSON’S LIFE Work is but one of life’s activities. Can you

count on your employees to be committed to it? When managing employees from another

culture, it is useful to know how important work is to them compared with other aspects

of their lives.

For example, work is much more important in the lives of Japanese than in the lives of

the Germans or British. 59 As a manager, you could expect to get more of your employees’

time from your staff in Japan.

polychronicity The preference for having multiple activities occurring at the same time.

monochronicity The preference for scheduling tasks separately and for focusing on just one task at a time.

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TABLE 3.2 Check Your Cross-Cultural Savvy

In which culture . . .

. . . do people move their head from side to side to show they are listening and agreeing with you?

. . . would you be likely to encounter a manager sleeping during meetings?

. . . do people often say “I’ll call you” but do not really mean it?

. . . would you be likely to encounter very long periods of silence after you ask someone a question?

. . . is it extremely rude to show the soles of your shoes?

Answers: India, Japan, the United States, Japan, any Muslim culture

VALUES IN THE WORKPLACE Understanding cultural differences in the values people use

and express at work is also important. For example, understanding these differences helps

companies develop strategies to cultivate global leadership talent and to move employees

between cultures.

You may recall from chapter 2 our discussion of Hofstede’s pioneering research on

the dimensions of national culture, 60 and the more recent international GLOBE (Global

Leadership and Organizational Behaviour Effectiveness) research project that profiles

even more fully the business cultures of 62 different countries. 61 GLOBE researchers

expect their findings to aid cross-cultural communication by offering some important

insights into how the people of those countries think and behave at work. See Table 3.3 on

page 80 for a summary of the GLOBE project’s findings on work values.

CORRUPTION A dark side of cultural differences in business values involves corrupt

behaviour, including bribery and other types of unfair business practices. Transparency

International tracks and publishes an index of perceived levels of corruption in 133 coun-

tries. 62 Although their index focuses on the abuse of public office for private gain, it has

clear implications for the business sector. In particular, Western managers must be wary of

such illegal activities as the use of payoffs to government officials.

Personality Differences Some researchers are exploring the relationship between culture and personality. One

study of 13 118 students in 31 countries suggests that the relationship of self-esteem to life

satisfaction is stronger in individualistic countries like Canada than in collectivist coun-

tries. 63 This is because in collectivist countries the self plays a less prominent role in the

lives of individuals. Another study suggests that the Big Five personality trait of openness

to experience or adventurousness predicts success in cross-cultural training performance. 64

Studies like these will help us to understand the relationship between personality and cul-

ture; many personality tests, including the Big Five inventory, which have cross-cultural

validity, 65 can be used for this purpose.

Even so, the use of personality inventories developed in one culture to measure behav-

iour in a different culture is problematic. Recently researchers have developed a test of

personality factors related to job performance and validated it with 2000 individuals, pri-

marily managers, in 13 countries. 66 The results suggest that the test, called the Global

Personality Inventory (GPI), is as cross-culturally transferable as the Big Five test. It can

be used to assess employees for selection, development, coaching, and feedback purposes.

Differences in Psychological Contracts A psychological contract is an individual’s belief about the exchange between him/

herself and his/her employer , 67 a topic we will discuss in more detail in chapter 6 . Among

the main societal influences on work behaviour are the laws governing the employer–

employee relationship, the existence of legal protections for employees, the existence of a

market economy, the power of the government relative to business, and the right to engage

in collective bargaining.

psychological contract An individual’s belief about the exchange between him/herself and his/her employer

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TABLE 3.3 Work Values in Global Perspective

Dimension Cultures low on this dimension . . . Cultures high on this dimension . . .

Institutional emphasis on collectivism versus individualism:

To what extent does the society foster group activities rather than individual autonomy?

Value autonomy and individual freedom and base rewards on individual performance.

Value self-interest more strongly than the collective good.

Examples: Argentina, Greece, Italy

Value group harmony and cooperation and use rewards to recognize the group instead of the individual. People are motivated by others’ satisfaction.

Examples: Japan, South Korea, Sweden

Future orientation:

To what extent does the society encourage future-oriented behaviours such as planning, investing in the future, and delaying gratification?

Emphasize instant gratification and shorter horizons for planning.

Examples: Argentina, Italy, Russia

Save for the future and emphasize longer time frames for planning.

Examples: The Netherlands, Singapore, Switzerland

Assertiveness:

To what extent does the society encourage its members to be tough, confrontational, assertive and competitive rather than modest and tender?

Value cooperative relations, harmony and loyalty, and show sympathy for the weak.

Examples: Sweden, New Zealand

Value competition and winners.

Examples: Austria, United States

Power distance:

To what degree do members of a society expect power to be unequally shared?

Expect less differentiation between people who have power and those who do not. Favour stronger participation in decision making.

Examples: Denmark, the Netherlands

Expect obedience toward superiors and clearly distinguish between people with power and status and people without.

Examples: Russia, Spain, Thailand

Performance orientation:

To what extent does the society encourage performance improvement and excellence?

Emphasize loyalty and belonging, are uncomfortable experiencing feedback, and pay attention to a person’s family and background rather than performance. Competition is associated with defeat.

Examples: Argentina, Italy, Russia

Have a “can-do” attitude and believe in taking the initiative. They prefer a direct, explicit style of communication and tend to have a sense of urgency.

Examples: Hong Kong, Singapore, United States

In-group collectivism:

To what extent do members of a society take pride in membership in small groups such as their family and circle of close friends, and the organizations in which they are employed?

Do not give family members and close friends any form of special treatment, and people do not feel an obligation to ignore rules or procedures to take care of close friends.

Examples: Denmark, Sweden, New Zealand

Take pride in their families and in their employing organizations. Being a member of a family and of a close group of friends—an in-group—is very important and family members and close friends have strong expectations of each other.

Examples: China, India, Iran

Humane orientation:

What is the degree to which the society encourages and rewards individuals for being fair, altruistic, generous, caring, and kind to others?

Motivate using power and material possessions, and self-enhancement is important. Assertive styles of conflict resolution are preferred, and people are expected to solve their own problems.

Examples: France, Singapore, West Germany

Value human relations, sympathy, and support for others—especially the weak. Individuals are expected to care for others. People are friendly, sensitive, and tolerant, and value harmony.

Examples: Ireland, Malaysia, the Philippines

Uncertainty avoidance:

To what extent do people seek orderliness, consistency, structure, formalized procedures, and laws in their daily lives to alleviate the unpredictability of future events?

Have a strong tolerance of ambiguity and uncertainty, are used to less structure in their lives, and are less concerned about following rules and procedures.

Examples: Greece, Russia, Venezuela

Prefer orderliness and consistency, structured lifestyles, clear social expectations, and many rules and laws.

Examples: Germany, Sweden, Switzerland

Gender differentiation:

To what extent does the society maximize gender role differences ?

Offer women relatively high status and authority; men and women have similar levels of education.

Examples: Denmark, Hungary, Poland

Give men higher social status.

Few women have authority.

Examples: China, Egypt, South Korea

Source : Based on information in M. Javidan and R. J. House, “Cultural Acumen for the Global Manager: Lessons from Project Globe,” Organizational Dynamics 29, no. 4 (Spring 2001): 289–305.

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Because cultural differences in psychological contracts may lead to conflict within a

company, managing a diverse workforce requires understanding these differences and how

they affect employees’ work behaviours, 68 and explicitly discussing the mutual obliga-

tions with employees.

How Can You Develop Your Cross-Cultural Relational Skills? How do you develop the attitudes and skills needed for effective cross-cultural working

relationships? The possibilities range from taking self-assessments, to attending diversity

workshops and cross-cultural training, to gaining international experience.

Using the Big Five Personality Theory Recall from chapter 2 the Big Five personality dimensions: (1) extraversion and energy

versus introversion and passivity, (2) openness to experience/adventurous versus tradi-

tional, (3) agreeableness versus tough-mindedness, (4) conscientious versus undirected-

ness, and (5) emotionality (also called neuroticism ) versus stability. Does your score on

the Big Five suggest that you are adventurous and agreeable, or traditional and tough-

minded? In general, adventurous people who are open to experience are likely to enjoy

working with other cultures, whereas traditionalists will not. 69 Agreeable people are also

relatively adaptable to new cultures and more likely to pick up on cultural differences than

tough-minded individualists.

Understanding Your Tolerance for Ambiguity Historically, a variety of tests have been developed to assess cross-cultural adaptability, 70

including measures of self-awareness (“self-monitoring”), self-confidence, and the pre-

disposition to culture shock. Some of these factors are now encompassed by the Big Five.

However, one classic personality test that is used fairly often deserves special mention.

The test measures a trait called tolerance for ambiguity . 71 It asks people the extent to

which they agree with statements such as the following:

1. A person who leads an even, regular life in which few surprises or unexpected hap-

penings arise really has a lot to be grateful for.

2. It is more fun to tackle a complicated problem than to solve a simple one.

3. People who fit their lives to a schedule probably miss most of the joy of living.

4. Many of our most important decisions are based upon insufficient information.

5. Teachers or supervisors who hand out vague assignments give a person the chance to

show initiative and originality.

If you strongly agree with statements 2 through 5, and disagree with statement 1, you

are likely to tolerate ambiguity well. You are more likely to enjoy complexity and novelty,

and to tolerate problems in which there is no clear answer. On the other hand, if you dis-

agree with these kinds of statements, you are likely to have a low tolerance for ambiguity

and are less likely than others to enjoy relating cross-culturally.

Evaluating Differences in Values Pay attention to any differences in values between yourself and employees from other cul-

tures. Researchers are beginning to discover that certain value differences can be particu-

larly problematic. In particular, people whose identity rests on values such as equality and

social justice may find working in cultures that do not hold similar values to be particularly

disturbing on a personal level. 72

People adjusting to the Canadian culture must also pay attention to the different val-

ues they find here. They may not be familiar with Canadian laws and customs, such as

those relating to sexual harassment in the workplace.

tolerance for ambiguity The extent to which someone enjoys complexity and novelty, and tolerates problems in which there is no clear answer.

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Developing Cultural Intelligence Some researchers suggest that to manage multicultural teams and work in multicultural

environments, individuals need to develop cultural intelligence . 73 This is the ability to

“think about thinking,” and to develop and expand your behavioural repertoire, often on

the spot. When interacting with a person from a different culture, people with high cultural

intelligence will do three things. First, they observe a variety of cues to the other person’s

behaviour and assemble them to make sense of what the other person is actually experienc-

ing. Next, they have the motivation to persist in their attempts to understand the other per-

son, despite receiving mixed signals and being confused. Third, they choose and execute

the right actions to respond appropriately.

As an overall strategy, when working with people from other cultures, learn to use the

following approaches: 74

■ When communicating cross-culturally, assume that differences exist until you learn

otherwise.

■ Suspend judgment: focus on describing to yourself the behaviours you observe, rather

than on evaluating them.

■ Do your best to empathize with the people you encounter, assessing who they are,

how they became who they are, and how their culture has shaped them.

■ Finally, develop hypotheses about the causes of their behaviour, and keep testing

those hypotheses with them and others, paying careful attention to their reaction and

feedback, until your understanding of the culture deepens.

Understanding Culture Shock Recognize that diverse employees may be stressed by working in a cultural environment

in which business practices, organizational dynamics, and interpersonal life are new and

different. In a new culture, they may experience culture shock (also called acculturative stress ), which is a sense of disorientation in interpreting the myriad of unfamiliar environ-

mental, business, and social cues they encounter. 75 Feeling confused and stressed, they

may not be as productive as expected. 76

How Do You Build Trust in Relationships? In this section we first examine the nature of trust and then discuss how to build trusting

relationships, including why lying should be seen as a relational skill.

What Is Trust? Trust is a foundation of effective communication. Both a psychological and a sociological

concept, trust characterizes individuals and can also be understood in the context of one-

to-one relationships, groups, and organizations. 77

On the one hand, individuals are said to be trusting. Indeed, the ability to trust is stud-

ied as a personality trait 78 and, as you may recall, it is a component of the Big Five factor

of agreeableness. On the other hand, in situations involving two or more persons, trust is a

kind of mutual faithfulness on which all social relationships ultimately depend. 79

Why is trust so important? It is the foundation for interpersonal relationships and

the basis for stability in social institutions and markets. 80 In predicting future events that

depend on relationships, trust is one way of reducing complexity: Instead of analyzing a

situation from all angles and at a great cost in time, we simply trust. 81 Trust is also a way

of increasing personal initiative, because without it, individuals would spend a great deal

of time figuring out the social complexities that surround them.

Differing bases or foundations for trust result in different types and potential levels

of trust. Calculus-based trust is based on our belief that another person may be deterred

from acting against our interests. 82 It is the kind of trust we typically find in our working

relationships.

cultural intelligence The ability to “think about thinking” and to develop and expand one’s behavioural repertoire.

culture shock A sense of disorientation in interpreting the myriad of unfamiliar environmental, business, and social cues one encounters in a new culture; also called acculturative stress .

calculus-based trust Trust based on the belief that another person may be deterred from acting against our interests.

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Knowledge-based trust is a type of trust that is based on our knowledge of another

person’s consistency, ability, or competence. This is the type of trust we typically have in

doctors and nurses. 83 Identification-based trust is based on our belief that another person identifies with—

that is, empathizes with—our interests and values, and is likely to look out for them. This

kind of trust is found in “relational” interpersonal contracts. Although more research needs to be done in this area, it now seems that trust and

distrust are not simply the extremes of a one-dimensional continuum that runs from

more trusting to less trusting/distrust. Rather, people judge a relationship on the extent

to which they trust it and, separately , on the extent to which they distrust it. 84 See

Table 3.4 . For example, the global economy runs on both trust and distrust. We trust our

company and our trading partners to work with us, but we also know that we have

some distrust in these relationships because they are dependent on the vagaries of

downsizing, mergers, imperfect agreements, and other business factors. In this way

of thinking, trust is defined as one party’s optimistic expectation of the behaviour of

another, when the other must make a decision about how to act, and distrust is defined

as the expectation that others will not act in one’s best interests and may deliberately

seek to cause harm. 85 To the extent that organizations focus on rational decision making and expediency,

it is difficult for them to create trust. In a fully rational world, organizations only trust

their employees to the extent that employees align their abilities, knowledge, and goals

with those of the organization. Likewise, employees only trust their employers when their

employers’ goals are aligned with their own. In areas outside of these alignments, particu-

larly areas in which beliefs and values matter, employees are, essentially, distrusted by

their organizations, and organizations are distrusted by their employees. So although we

may be interested in building trust in order to enhance efficiency and effectiveness in busi-

ness relationships, we also create extensive contracts and written agreements to manage

the possible downside consequences of distrust.

How Do You Create Trusting Relationships? Trust is not a commodity or a belief. Rather, it is one characteristic of effective inter-

personal processes. Thus, trust can be created, and it can be restored. Developing trust

between individuals requires that both of them take responsibility for developing a variety

of effective interpersonal practices, including relational and emotional skills. 86

knowledge-based trust Trust based on another person’s consistency, ability, or competence.

identification-based trust Trust based on the belief that another person identifies (empathizes) with our interests and values, and is likely to look out for them.

TABLE 3.4 Trust and Distrust in Relationships

High Trust Engaged Oppositionally Engaged

Characterized by hope, faith, confidence, assurance, and initiative

Example: A close family or team, or a highly cohesive organization

Example: Trading alliances between business partners from different countries and different cultures

Low Trust Unengaged Negatively Engaged

Characterized by no hope, no faith, no confidence, passivity, and hesitance

Example: Casual acquaintances

Example: Enemies

Low Distrust High Distrust

Characterized by no fear, absence of skepticism, absence of cynicism, low monitoring, and no vigilance

Characterized by fear, skepticism, cynicism, wariness and watchfulness, and vigilance

Source : Adapted with permission from Academy of Management, from Academy of Management Review 23(3):438–58, “Trust and Distrust: New Relationships and Realities,” R. J. Lewicki, D. J. McAllister, and R. J. Bies, © 1998. Permission conveyed through Copyright Clearance Center, Inc.

trust One party’s optimistic expectation of the behaviour of the other, when the other must make a decision about how to act.

distrust The expectation that another will not act in one’s best interests and may deliberately seek to cause harm.

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CREATING TRUST IS A RELATIONAL SKILL Trust is created by using promises, commit-

ments, offers, demands, expectations, and explicit and tacit understandings. 87 It is estab-

lished through dialogue and conversation, by making and keeping promises, and by setting

and meeting expectations.

Trust also depends on respect for one’s fellow human beings, an intent that is con-

veyed to others by such communication and interpersonal behaviours as being on time

for meetings, respecting individuals’ personal space, and answering emails. Being seen as

high in credibility and trustworthiness is essential for effective leaders. At one major bank,

officers who are caught in even the smallest infraction are fired, not necessarily because of

the infraction itself, but because their behaviour erodes trust. 88

CREATING TRUST IS ALSO AN EMOTIONAL SKILL Trust is also an emotion that is essential

to our well-being. Without it we are alienated and paranoid, and through it we define our

relationships to the world. It has been suggested that trust is a kind of optimism, whereas

distrust is a kind of pessimism. 89

The ability to trust and distrust is at least partly learned. In a survey by economics

and psychology researchers, 1245 randomly selected college professors were asked how

much they give to charity each year. 90 About 9 percent of the economics professors, whose

professional training teaches that people act only in their own self-interest, gave nothing.

In contrast, despite lower incomes than the economists’, the proportion of professors in

other disciplines giving nothing ranged only between 1.1 and 4.2 percent. Further research

showed that it was their training in economics, rather than their personal predispositions,

that reduced the economists’ altruism.

Narrowly self-interested behaviour is ultimately self-defeating, because in the long

run, people who trust and cooperate do better than those who do not. We each need to

examine and understand our ability to trust. Whether to trust poses an existential dilemma,

as it may be that believing in the viability of human commitments is a necessary first step

to making ourselves trustworthy, and to trusting. 91

Trust and Lying Even lying is, in part, a relational skill. 92 Consider that to do something like extend an invita-

tion or make a request commits the speaker to defining aspects of himself or herself, the other

person, and the relationship between the two. The act of inviting someone to do something, for

example, presupposes a relationship between you and that person. If the person rejects your

invitation directly, the rejection causes you to lose face and may jeopardize the relationship.

So a person who doesn’t want to accept an invitation may lie to save the face of

the person issuing the invitation. “Actually, my calendar is totally full next week. I’m so

sorry.” Such a lie may actually reinforce the person’s own identity as a considerate, coop-

erative person. This occurs despite the fact that his or her lie goes against standard moral

injunctions to avoid lying. In this way of thinking, lying is important not so much because

it “interferes with trust” (although it can do that too), but because people want to maintain

relationships, avoid conflicts, and prevent the loss of face.

How Do You Persuade Others? Persuasive communication is aimed at changing attitudes , which are tendencies to think,

feel, and act either positively or negatively toward stimuli in our environment. 93 To per-

suade effectively, you must control the characteristics of the communicator, the message,

and the audience. 94 You should also weigh which of two routes to persuasion is better. 95 The central

route focuses on the argument you are making. When you use this route, you persuade oth-

ers by basing your argument on carefully processed information and elaborating upon an

argument logically. In contrast, the peripheral route focuses on the communicator. Using

this approach, you pay less attention to carefully processing information and elaborating

an argument, but persuade through personal cues such as confidence and attractiveness. What characteristics of the communicator, the message, and the audience are important?

attitudes Tendencies to think, feel, and act either positively or negatively toward stimuli in our environment.

central route A persuasion strategy that focuses on the argument that one is making.

peripheral route A persuasion strategy that focuses on the communicator, using personal cues such as confidence and attractiveness.

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The Communicator First, is the communicator credible? 96 A credible communicator has two features: com-

petency, the extent to which an individual is perceived to be knowledgeable in their field,

and trustworthiness, the extent to which a person is believed to be telling the truth without

compromising it for political or personal gain. Second, is the communicator likable? Typically, likable communicators are physi-

cally attractive or similar to us demographically and are more likely to influence us than

those who are unattractive and unlike us.

The Message The message should be matched to the audience. Here are some ways to do this:

AVOID EXTREME POSITIONS Research suggests that communicators are more persuasive if

their position is not too far removed from that of their audience. People spend more time

scrutinizing what they consider to be extreme material and are more likely to discount it

than if the material is closer to their own view. 97 Also, the more personally important the

issue is to them, the more stubborn the audience is. 98

CONTENT RICH OR CONTENT POOR? Should you entertain or inform? Use few data points

or many? The answer is that if your audience is not highly involved in the subject, you can

be more superficial, relying on slogans, one-liners, and slick graphics to make your case.

However, if your audience is highly involved with the subject, any slick tactics must be

grounded in lots of fact-based content. 99

FRAME YOUR MESSAGE EFFECTIVELY Suppose you are invited to invest in a venture that

has a 30 percent chance of failure. Would you part with your hard-earned cash under

these odds? Now consider this alternative: you are invited to invest in a venture that has a

70 percent chance of success. So, what do you think? It all depends how you “see” the

issue, doesn’t it? Framing a message is describing it in a way that is most likely to lead

to the outcome you want. 100 Framing is an effective strategy because people’s patterns of

decision making are somewhat predictable. Keep in mind these principles for framing a decision:

Frame the consequences negatively. Framing a decision in terms of its negative con-

sequences is more persuasive than framing it in terms of its positive consequences. 101

Imagine you need to downsize your company, and you hope your management team will

support the workforce reduction. Question: Are you more likely to win your managers’

cooperation if you frame the problem in terms of the costs to the company of not downsiz-

ing (such as loss of pricing advantage and market share) or if you frame it in terms of the

merits of being the right size (to match the competition and be profitable)? Answer: frame

the problem in terms of the costs to the company of not downsizing.

Fear tactics must include instructions for coping. Messages with high fear content work

better than messages with low fear content as long as they tell the audience how to deal

with the problem. 102 Safety training films work better when they show mangled bodies,

rather than accident statistics, and also demonstrate safe techniques.

Frame the risks in terms of losses. When you want someone to take a risk, it is better

to frame a decision in terms of the probability of suffering losses rather than the prob-

ability of making gains. Research on the risky choice framing effect suggests that when

you emphasize the gains to be made, people suddenly become risk averse, whereas if you

emphasize the ills to be escaped, they become interested in taking the risk. 103 As your

company’s marketing chief, you hope to convince top management to invest heavily in

marketing a new product. Would you frame the choice in terms of the benefits to the

company, such as revenue enhancement, or in terms of what competitors will do to the

company if they get to market first with a similar product? Go to the head of the class if

your answer is to stir up worry about the competition.

credible communicator A communicator with sufficient competency (knowledge of one’s field) and trustworthiness (extent to which one is believed to be telling the truth).

likable communicator A communicator with personal traits (often including personal attractiveness and demographic similarity) that endear him/her to the receiver.

framing Describing a message in a way that is most likely to lead to the outcome you want.

risky choice framing effect People’s tendency to become risk averse when possible gains to be made are emphasized but to become more interested in taking the risk when possible ills to be escaped are emphasized.

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Frame the attributes positively. The attribute framing effect suggests that when you

want people to think positively about a characteristic, you should describe it in positive

terms. This straightforward concept is used widely in marketing: it is more inviting to

describe meat as 75 percent lean than it is to describe it as 25 percent fat. 104 The concept

applies to decision making as well. Present your program as having met 90 percent of its

target and you are more likely to see it continued than if you present it as having failed to

meet 10 percent of its target. 105

The Audience Communicating effectively also depends on understanding who your audience is and why

they might be likely to change their minds.

UNDERSTAND YOUR AUDIENCE’S NEEDS People vary in terms of both their ability to think

critically about the content of a message and their motivation to listen to it. Take these

factors into account as follows: if your audience has the ability and motivation to listen to

your message, focus on the strength and quality of your arguments. If they lack these char-

acteristics, concentrate on factors other than the argument itself, such as your appearance

and ability to evoke emotion. 106

WHY PEOPLE CHANGE THEIR ATTITUDES There are competing theories about why people

change their attitudes. One approach is cognitive dissonance theory , which suggests that

individuals want their attitudes and beliefs to be consistent with each other and also

with their behaviour. 107 Thus, people who smile at those they dislike experience some

discomfort because their behaviour does not match their attitude. Literally hundreds

of studies have shown that when people publicly engage in behaviours that run coun-

ter to their attitudes, they are likely to change their attitudes. 108 It follows that, if you

can induce people to engage in behaviours that run counter to their attitudes, you may

change their attitudes. One way this principle has been applied is to attempt to reduce

racial prejudice by bringing people of different races together in positive situations. If

different races interact positively, it is believed their attitudes toward each other will

improve. Research has shown, however, that people change their attitudes primarily to

re-establish a positive view of themselves, and that if they can achieve this positive view

of self in some way other than changing their attitudes, they will. 109 For example, an

individual might donate to a charity that assists a racial minority rather than change his

or her attitude about that minority. A different explanation for why attitudes change is offered by self-perception

theory , which suggests that when people are not sure of their attitudes, they simply infer

them from their behaviour. This process also makes attitudes consistent with behaviour.

Probably both theories are correct. Cognitive dissonance theory applies to situations

in which our attitudes are clear and strong and any inconsistency among them has an

important impact on one’s self-concept, whereas self-perception theory applies to situa-

tions when attitudes are less clear. 110 People may also be induced to change their attitudes

through a variety of motivational tactics that we address in chapter 6 .

PUT THE AUDIENCE IN A GOOD MOOD Research shows that people who are in a posi-

tive emotional state are more readily persuaded. 111 It seems that when in a good mood

people become mentally lazy and more uncritically accept your point of view. 112 So tell

a joke, offer food and drink, book the meeting in a great place . . . use your imagination!

What Relational Strengths Do You Already Have? Which Skills Do You Need to Develop? Learning the cognitive and analytical skills taught in academic courses is only part of making

a successful career. It is also important to excel in a variety of social and interpersonal skills,

which is why gaining experience in social settings outside of the classroom is a big plus.

attribute framing effect People’s tendency to think positively about a characteristic when it is described in positive terms.

cognitive dissonance theory A theory about why attitudes change which suggests that individuals want their attitudes and beliefs to be consistent with each other and also with their behaviour.

self-perception theory A theory about why attitudes change, which suggests that when people are not sure of their attitudes, they simply infer them from their behaviour.

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Communication Competencies No list of skills can be comprehensive, but the quiz provided in Self-Assessment 3.1 should

be useful. After taking the quiz, consider how much you use the important interpersonal

approaches of self-monitoring, personal orientation to others, and active listening.

Self-Monitoring The personality trait of self-monitoring is an individual’s tendency to actively construct his

or her public image to achieve social goals. 113 Before we discuss why self-monitoring is use-

ful, get a sense of your self-monitoring profile by taking the quiz in Self-Assessment 3.2 on

page 88 . Individuals differ in their ability and willingness to monitor their self-expressions

in social situations. The higher your score on the self-monitoring quiz, the more likely you

are to monitor your self-expression. High self-monitors ask themselves, “Who does this

situation want me to be and how can I be that person?” whereas low self-monitors ask,

“Who am I and how can I be me in this situation?” 114 The former willingly adapts to the

situation, whereas the latter thinks, “What you see is what you get.”

High self-monitors are more likely than low self-monitors to occupy central positions

in an organization’s social networks. 115 They are also more likely to emerge as leaders

in groups. 116 It may not surprise you to hear that a study of undergraduate seniors found

Self-Assessment 3.1

Communication Competencies Quiz

Rate the extent to which you are competent on each of the skills listed below using the following scale. (For verification of your

view, you may also want to ask someone who knows you well to do the same task.)

1 = to a very little extent or not at all, 2 = to a little extent, 3 = to some extent, 4 = to a great extent, 5 = to a very great extent

Self-awareness

________ I read my own emotions well.

________ I recognize the impact of my emotions on others.

________ I sometimes use my “gut” sense to guide decision making.

________ I know my strengths and limitations.

________ I have a sense of my own self-worth.

Self-management

________ I control my potentially disruptive emotions.

________ I am trustworthy.

________ I adapt to changing situations.

________ I overcome obstacles.

________ I manage message overload.

________ I am ready to seize opportunities.

________ I see the upside in events.

Social awareness

________ I take an active interest in others’ concerns.

________ I recognize customer needs.

________ I recognize the needs of my bosses.

________ I recognize the needs of my subordinates.

Relationship management

________ I have a range of tactics to use in persuasion.

________ I make a good first impression.

________ I present myself favourably.

________ I am assertive.

Now rank your competencies to develop a sense of where your strengths and weaknesses lie.

Based on what you learn, you can develop a plan for enhancing your skills.

self-monitoring An individual’s tendency to actively construct his or her public image to achieve social goals.

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marketing students to be significantly more likely than management information system or

accounting majors to be self-monitors. Thus, marketing majors are more likely to attempt

to control the impressions they make on others, portray a deliberate image, adjust their

behaviour to any situation, read others’ emotions, have good intuition, and tell whether

others consider a joke to be in poor taste. They are also more likely to be able to identify

others who are lying to make an impression. 117

What are the implications of your self-monitoring style for life in organizations? As

one set of researchers put it, even if you cannot change your self-monitoring orientation,

you can change your behaviour to some extent to reduce any negative impacts. 118 For

instance, low self-monitors like to belong to cliques in which individuals have similar atti-

tudes. They choose their friends on the basis of liking and they like to be with the same set

of friends no matter what the activity. Meanwhile, high self-monitors invest little emotion

in relationships, choosing their friends based on how closely their skills match the activity

at hand. If you are a low self-monitor, you can consciously resolve to overcome your incli-

nation to retreat into stable friendship cliques by deliberately widening your friendship

network. High self-monitors are susceptible to pressure from others, causing them to have

more workload because of the larger number of connections in their interpersonal network.

Their personal challenge is to avoid accepting too many different work responsibilities

while still maintaining friendships.

Personal Orientation to Others What is your personal orientation to others ? In other words, how much are you really

interested in others? People differ in whether they are more pro-self or pro-social. 119

Self-Assessment 3.2

Self-Monitoring Quiz

Instructions: How well does each statement below describe you? Use the following scale.

Inaccurate to a

very great

extent = 1

Inaccurate to a

great extent = 2

Somewhat

accurate = 3

Accurate to a

great extent = 4

Accurate to a

very great

extent = 5

1. ________ I would make a good actor.

2. ________ I hate being the centre of attention.

3. ________ I put on a show to impress people.

4. ________ I am likely to show off if I get the chance.

5. ________ I am the life of the party.

6. ________ I am good at making impromptu speeches.

7. ________ I would not make a good comedian.

8. ________ I like to attract attention.

9. ________ I use flattery to get ahead.

10. ________ I don’t like to draw attention to myself.

Scoring:

Step 1: For each of questions 2, 7, and 10, subtract your answer from 6. For example, if you answered “2” to question 2, your

score for that question is 6 – 2 = 4. Sum these three answers and put the total here: ________ .

Step 2: For the remaining questions, total your score and put it here: ________ .

Step 3: Sum Steps 1 and 2 to get your total score: ________ .

Comparison: An average score for undergraduates who are primarily business students is about 25 points (n = 111).

Source: International Personality Item Pool. (A Scientific Collaboratory for the Development of Advanced Measures of Personality Traits and Other Individual Differences, http://ipip.ori.org/ , 2001. Accessed November 3, 2005).

personal orientation to others The extent to which an individual is interested in other people.

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Research suggests that people with pro-social orientations are especially concerned

about how they present themselves to others. This concern translates into behaviours, too:

pro-socials actually do make more positive impressions on others. 120

If you are more pro-self, you are likely to be

■ Individualistic

■ Competitive

If you are more pro-social, you are more likely to be

■ Cooperative

■ Altruistic

■ Egalitarian

■ Maximin (This term refers to a person’s desire to maximize the outcomes for the

individual who receives the lowest outcomes. Essentially, if you exhibit this tendency,

you like cheering for the underdog.)

Active Listening As one pundit puts it, “You hear with your ears, but you listen with your ears and your

mind.” However, hearing comes naturally, while listening does not. Active listening is a

strategy of paying attention in order to assess the emotional and informational content of a

message and establish rapport with the speaker. Whether you are a manager or a salesperson, a systems analyst or an accountant, being

a good listener is an essential business skill. Marginal listening occurs when you hear the

words but are easily distracted and allow your mind to wander. 121 Evaluative listening

occurs when you concentrate on what is being said but do not pick up non-verbal or subtle

verbal cues. Truly active listening only occurs when you receive a message, process it, and

respond so as to encourage further communication.

A rule of thumb for interviewers is that they should talk only about 30 percent of the

time and listen about 70 percent of the time. 122 Many interviewers, upon being video-

recorded, are chagrined to learn that they are talking far too much. Listening is especially

important in sales. Insurance sales managers believe that for agents selling insurance, lis-

tening is actually more essential than either speaking or writing. 123

How good are you at listening? See Table 3.5 on page 90 to find out what you should

be doing. 124

One important aspect of active listening is the ability to ask good questions. 125 You prob-

ably already know the difference between closed questions and open questions . The former

can be answered with a yes or no, whereas the latter encourage more elaborate responses.

When you ask a closed question you tend to pause or even end a dialogue. In contrast, when

you ask an open-ended question you tend to move a dialogue along. In addition, a dialogue

may be cut off because one person simply avoids asking any questions at all. This may happen

because one party is uninterested in what the other party has to say, or is reluctant to seem too

intrusive, or feels uncertain about his or her ability to follow up on the other party’s answer.

What Are Some Tested Tactics for Doing Well on Job Interviews? A job interview is a meeting of two strangers. Typically it is the first one-to-one relation-

ship you will have in your organization. How can communication and relationship theory

help you to establish rapport and get the job?

Making a Good First Impression To begin with, not only is it important to make a good first impression, it is very impor-

tant. Consider this interesting research. Two university psychologists showed 10- second

clips of teachers to raters, who judged the teachers on a 15-item list of qualities. 126

active listening A strategy of paying attention in order to assess the emotional and informational content of a message and establish rapport with the speaker.

closed questions Questions that can be answered with a yes or no.

open questions Questions that encourage elaborate responses.

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The researchers then repeated the experiment with 5-second clips of the same teachers

using different raters. Allowing for statistical error, the results for the 10-second and

5-second clips were identical. Intrigued, the researchers then repeated the experiment

using 2-second clips, and again got results that were essentially the same! Finally, the

researchers compared the 2-second ratings by complete strangers with student ratings

of the same teachers after a full semester of classes, and, again, the ratings were in

close agreement. Now you might say, this experiment was done with students, and

who knows what criteria they used to rate their teachers? What really happens in job

interviews?

To investigate a business application of their experiment, the researchers did one

final iteration. Interviewers who were trained for six weeks in employment-interviewing

techniques interviewed 98 volunteers for 15 to 20 minutes and then rated them. Later,

15- second clips of each interview, including the applicant entering the room, shaking

hands with the interviewer, and sitting down, were shown to independent raters. The opin-

ions of the raters who saw the candidates for 15 seconds correlated strongly with those of

the trained interviewers who saw the candidates for 15 to 20 minutes. This is but the latest

in a series of research studies indicating that first impressions do matter. 127

Now that you know this, what can you do about the phenomenon? Physically

attractive people are perceived as having more positive traits than are less attractive

people, 128 so pay attention to grooming, good posture, and smiling. A study of college

students seeking jobs found that if you are conventionally attractive, dressing well

increases your chances of being hired. In the study, attractive people who dressed

appropriately increased their chances of being hired from 82 to 100 percent. For sub-

jects who were unattractive, however, dressing well only increased their chances

of being hired from 68 to 76 percent. This study also demonstrated how life can be

unfair: poorly dressed, attractive candidates were hired more often than well-dressed,

unattractive candidates.

TABLE 3.5 Characteristics of Effective Listening

Effective sensing is receiving all cues from the speaker.

Verbal skills: ■ Hearing what is said ■ Noting the infl ection with which it is said ■ Attending to the message ■ Sensing the tone of the message

Non-verbal skills: ■ Picking up on body language, facial expressions, and personal space ■ Using all your senses, not just hearing

Example: An effective insurance agent pays attention to what the client has to say and conveys this attention by not being easily distracted.

Effective processing is thinking about the material you have received. ■ Understanding: ascribing accurate meaning to the words and to the

emotions, thoughts, and feelings behind the words ■ Interpreting: assessing the implications of the message ■ Evaluating: assessing the importance of the message ■ Remembering: committing new material to memory

Example: An effective insurance agent asks questions to clarify what the client is saying and identifies the client’s key points. The agent restates the points to confirm that he or she has understood them. The agent separates facts from opinions and is open to ideas and suggestions.

Effective responding is assuring the speaker that listening has occurred, encouraging communication to continue, and monitoring your own responses carefully.

Verbal skills: ■ Acknowledging what is said ■ Agreeing with some of it, paraphrasing it, and asking questions ■ Using an appropriate tone of voice and familiar words

Non-verbal skills: ■ Maintaining appropriate eye contact, facial expressions, head nods,

and body language

Example: To indicate listening, an agent nods and maintains good posture. The agent has good listening manners: he or she does not interrupt and does not behave in distracting ways, such as playing with hair or jewelry.

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Once a first impression is established, raters are actually more highly influenced by

it than by a candidate’s later performance. This phenomenon is called first impression bias . Interviewers show relatively high positive regard to attractive applicants, selling

the company to them and giving them job information while gathering less informa-

tion from them. 129 This phenomenon suggests that when someone who is initially rated

highly suffers a downturn in job performance, it is likely they will continue to be rated

highly. 130

Presenting Yourself Favourably You can present yourself most favourably by using impression management techniques as

well as by finding companies that are looking for people specifically like you.

IMPRESSION MANAGEMENT TECHNIQUES How can impression management help you in

an interview? Although little research has been done in this area, some results are sug-

gestive. Politicians, for example, learn to control their non-verbal behaviour to convey an

impression of being powerful. 131 A weak applicant might be able to do the same thing.

However, a strong applicant with poor self-presentation skills has to be concerned about

creating a false negative impression.

An exploratory study of interviewers and applicants in a campus placement office

suggests that applicants do indeed use a wide range of impression management tactics, and

that these have a potentially significant effect on how well they are evaluated and whether

they receive a job offer. 132 Self-promotion was the most frequently used tactic, and both

self-promotion and demonstrating a fit with the company influenced the interviewer’s rat-

ings of the interviewee. Here is a list of the most popular self-promotion strategies used by

job applicants in the study (in no particular order):

The applicants told stories about

■ How they chose their careers or became interested in the company

■ Past job duties and work history

■ Scholastic activities and achievements

■ Leisure or travel activities

■ Extracurricular activities

They also made statements about themselves as

■ Successful and competent

■ Goal- or results-oriented

■ Highly motivated, organized, or energetic

■ Someone with strong interpersonal and communication skills

■ An effective leader

■ Flexible and open to growth

Most applicants tried to construct positive self-images in two or more categories.

A caveat is in order here. The research on self-promotion has focused on the job appli-

cation process in the United States, a highly individualized culture. In collectivist cultures,

and in international companies, other tactics will undoubtedly be necessary. More research

is needed in this important area.

In Conclusion This chapter covers a lot of ground, from what the communication process is to how you

can make it work for you. Most people need to learn even more about building effective

one-to-one relationships through communication. Whatever your interpersonal focus, be it

sales, negotiation, or managing subordinates, there are many books and courses available

to help you continue to improve your skills.

first impression bias The phenomenon in which raters are more highly influenced by a candidate’s first impression once it is established than by that candidate’s later performance.

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Apply What You Have Learned

World Class Company: Mayo Clinic

Some organizations take communication very seriously.

Mayo Clinic is one such place. 133 One of the best known

academic medical centres in the world, every year Mayo

Clinic serves more than half a million patients from 150

countries. As part of numerous efforts designed to ensure

these patients have a positive experience, the organization

employs a full-time communications (“comm”) team. As

their spokesperson puts it, “Mayo Clinic employees create

our brand every day in every interaction they have with

every patient. It’s not only the physicians, nurses, and ther-

apists, but also the housekeepers, parking attendants, and

every other Mayo employee who interacts with patients or

supports those that do.” 134

A primary principle of the comm team is to get “the

right information to the right people the right way.” 135

What exactly does the comm team do? Here are some

examples:

■ Every year it reviews in depth three sets of data about

its more than 38 000 employees—the employee satis-

faction survey, survey results from the Fortune 100’s

Best Places to Work survey (it often makes the list),

and employee demographic data. It does this to fully

understand its employees and face down stereotypes

about them.

■ It networks with employees to find out about their

concerns. Each member of the comm team picks

10 employees whom they know informally and sends

them emails once or twice a month, which they can

respond to if they feel they are not too busy. The

emails ask such questions as “What one question

would you like to ask our CEO?”

■ It creates personal communication plans for Mayo’s

top managers. These plans include key messages and

tactics. A writer is assigned to each executive and

works with him or her regularly to collaborate on cre-

ating messages for employees.

■ The comm team hired a storytelling consultant to help

top managers develop and use their own stories in

their communications.

■ The comm team develops its own processes as a

team, constantly challenging its members to bring

problems and challenges rather than updates and

reports to group meetings. It also works hard to help

members utilize their unique strengths. “That means

making sure your best crisis communicator isn’t

overwhelmed with deadline-driven projects and that

your creative ‘think outside the box’ communica-

tor isn’t drooping from constant operational writ-

ing projects. It means making sure you are giving

people the kinds of projects that motivate them to do

their best.” 136

DISCUSS

1. Which particular one-to-one relationships does Mayo

focus on?

2. What communication principles does the motto “get

the right information to the right people the right way”

suggest?

3. What else do you think a communication team might

do for a company?

Advice from the Pros Etiquette for Electronic Communication Respect the Receiver

When you call or email someone, identify yourself clearly.

“Hi, this is Ralph Oliva from Canuck Limited. I am trying

to reach Onika Johnson.” Sign your emails and PowerPoint

presentations with the source of the communication and

how to get back to that source.

Match the Medium to the Message

When conveying good news, it may be OK to use an

impersonal medium. But when conveying bad news, use

voice-to-voice or face-to-face communication.

When you need a lengthy, complex, detailed answer,

send your message several ways, such as with an email, a

PowerPoint attachment, and a phone call.

MyOBLab

Visit MyOBLab to access chapter quizzes, cases with assessments, glossary fl ashcards, audio chapter summaries, and

much more. MyOBLab also features a personalized Study Plan that helps you identify which chapter concepts you’ve

mastered and guides you towards study tools for additional practice.

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Avoid Angry Email

Respect the dignity of the person you are angry with and

deliver the message personally, especially if this will

improve your business relationship. Remember that an

angry email lives on in cyberspace forever, and may be a

problem when it is discovered later.

Avoid Spam-Nation

Deliver value in every communication. If you are selling

something, package it in a communication that conveys

real value.

Avoid Phone Annoyances

Make your outgoing voicemail message brief. Don’t say

“Your call is very important to me” or include long explana-

tions about how your answering system works. Answer your

phone messages.

Don’t use your cellphone in public places. You’ll avoid

creating noise pollution as well as inadvertently sharing

business secrets with strangers.

DISCUSS

1. What electronic communication problems have you

experienced?

2. Do you agree with this advice? What further advice

would you give?

3. This chapter lists media in terms of how rich they are

as a medium of communication. Email is considered

one of the leanest media. What enriches an email?

What are its limitations?

Source: Based on R. A. Oliva, “Respecting Your Receiver,” Marketing Management 13, no. 3 (May/June 2004): 40–42. R. A. Oliva is executive

director of the Institute for the Study of Business Markets (ISBM).

More Advice from the Pros How to Impress at Job Interviews

1. Prepare thoroughly by researching the company (its

annual report, website, and other literature) and be

ready for standard questions such as “What interests

you about this company?” and “What are your strengths

and weaknesses?”

2. Arrive on time. Consider making the trip once ahead of

time to discover potential bottlenecks.

3. Make a good fi rst impression. Always wear a suit even

if you know the company has a relaxed dress code.

4. Be polite to receptionists and all employees. The

impression you make on them may count.

5. Sell yourself. Even if it is on your resumé, describe

the progress you have made through school, or, later,

through your career, and mention any special expertise

you have.

6. Ask relevant questions, such as why the position is

available and what the future of the company is likely to

be. Avoid salary and benefi ts talk at the fi rst interview.

7. Find out what the next step in the hiring process is and

the time frame for that step. Thank the interviewer for his

or her time. If you are excited about the company, say so.

8. If you receive a rejection letter, write the interviewer to

ask why this happened and what you could do differ-

ently in future interviews.

Source : Based on M. Ingram, “How to: Impress at Job Interviews,”

Financial Management (CIMA) (March 2002): 41. M. Ingram is

European managing director of the financial recruitment firm David

Charley International.

DISCUSS

1. Do you agree with this advice? Why or why not?

2. What other advice would you add to these tips?

Gain Experience I. Effective Listening Exercises

A. Pair Up for These Challenging Exercises Your professor will tell you when to start and end your

conversations.

Exercise 1: Have a conversation with your partner, but

do not use the word “I.”

Exercise 2: One person starts the conversation with a

sentence, and the other begins his or her response with

the last word or phrase of the fi rst person’s sentence.

Exercise 3: Describe something, and then at the end of

your description add “and that’s all.”

B. Form a Large Group Exercise 4: Speak a letter of resignation, with each

person in the group adding only one word.

Source: Second City Communication—Prentice Hall video, 2005.

II. Cultural Awareness Exercise Becoming aware of your own heritage and cultural back-

ground as well as your pride in that background makes it

easier to see sources of cultural pride in other cultural and

ethnic backgrounds. In this exercise, participants are asked

to discuss characteristics of their own cultural groups

and to identify sources of pride in their own culture, and

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then to repeat the exercise from the point of view of a

member of a different culture.

The purposes of this exercise are:

1. To explore sources of pride in one’s cultural background.

2. To identify stereotypes of other cultural groups.

3. To develop appreciation for cultural diversity.

4. To develop empathy with members of disadvantaged

groups.

Step 1: The class is divided into as many groups of

10 to 12 as possible, with even numbers in each group.

Half of each group forms a circle, facing outwards, while

the other half forms a concentric circle, facing inward,

paired one-to-one with a member of the inner circle.

Members will discuss each of the following topics for

about four minutes, two minutes for each of the partners.

At a signal from the instructor, the outer circle shifts one

position to the left, creating new pairings.

1. Describe your cultural background. You can defi ne

this as narrowly or as broadly as you would like, but

try to focus on what distinguishes you culturally from

others.

2. Of what aspects of your cultural background are you

most proud?

3. Describe some of the customs, rituals, and/or ceremo-

nies associated with your cultural group.

4. Describe a member of your cultural group, excluding

members of your family, who is a good role model for

others in that cultural group.

5. Describe a situation where you felt out of place as a

result of being different from others.

Step 2: Repeat the same process, but this time each group

is to adopt the identity of another culture. For example,

one group might be assigned to respond to the topics from

the perspective that every member of the group was South

Asian. As many different cultural groups can be assigned

as there are circles in the class.

Reassemble the class and discuss the exercise.

DISCUSS

1. What did you learn about yourself here?

2. What did you learn about other cultures, in general?

Specifi cally?

3. What made you comfortable or uncomfortable?

Source: G. Coombs and Y. Sarason, “Culture Circles: A Cultural Self-

Awareness Exercise,” Journal of Management Education 22 (2) April

1998: 218–226. Copyright © 1998 by Sage Publications. Reprinted by

permission of Sage Publications.

Can You Solve This Manager’s Problem? The People’s Republic of China (PRC): A Research Project (to Be Completed Outside of Class) Imagine that you are a general manager in a medium-sized

transportation and distribution company. You have just

been informed that, beginning in four weeks, you will be

spending six months on a project in the People’s Republic

of China. Your task is to develop a list of resources to help

you adjust culturally in this assignment. You are working

from your actual situation, in your city and province. Your

project will be evaluated on the quality of your fi ndings.

For example, did you identify some really top experts on

China, or not?

Do each of the following:

1. Identify four or fi ve books that you should read about

the PRC. For each book, describe in a few paragraphs

why it is essential reading. Select books covering a

broad range of topics about China, rather than just one

or two. For instance, do not select books only on gov-

ernment; instead, choose books on government, educa-

tion, culture, economics, and so on.

2. Identify two or three academic and/or well-researched

articles that specifi cally address issues of cross-cultural

adjustment in the PRC. Based on these, list the top 10

issues that you may face.

3. Find one good website that describes issues of cross-

cultural adjustment in the PRC. Based on this website,

list the top fi ve issues that you may face.

4. Identify an individual who could serve as a cultural

interpreter for you. Describe his or her qualifi cations,

how you would contact this person, how much time you

want to spend with him or her, and what you would like

to learn from him or her.

5. Identify one place where your company could send you

to gain experience in this culture before your actual

assignment begins. You have a budget of $3500 and

three days available for this immersion training.

6. Identify and watch one good movie fi lmed in the PRC.

Summarize what you learned from it in a few paragraphs.

7. Looking back on your research, what are its limitations?

Its strengths?

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How can you make the communication process work for you?

A one-to-one communication is often, and inadequately,

conceptualized as a series of steps. Pitfalls in communi-

cating include selective attention, overload, categorizing,

erroneous attributions, and the desire to support one’s own

psychological identity. When responding to a communica-

tion, it is important to choose the appropriate medium, based

on whether it is rich or lean, formal or informal.

communication 69

unintentionality 69

noise 69

selective attention 71

information filtering 71

attribution 72

fundamental attribution error 72

self-serving bias 72

stereotypes 72

prejudice 72

illusory correlation 73

possible selves 73

impression management 73

self-presentation strategy 73

other-enhancement strategy 73

jargon 74

medium 74

open door policy 74

grapevine 74

How can you use non-verbal behaviours to communicate more effectively?

Keep in mind that non-verbal communication is powerful.

Pay attention to such behaviours as facial expressions, ges-

tures, and entering an individual’s personal space.

personal space 76

How can understanding gender styles improve your ability to communicate on the job?

Men are more likely to use report talk and agonism,

whereas women are more likely to use rapport talk and to

misunderstand agonism. Women and other minorities may

fi nd themselves in a double-bind when it comes to meeting

both their traditional roles and their business roles.

report talk 76

rapport talk 76

agonism 76

double-bind 77

How can understanding cultural differences improve your ability to manage cross-cultural relationships?

Culture is a set of shared beliefs, values, and practices. It

is important to understand the differences and similarities

between how Canadians and others do business.

culture 77

national culture 77

What cross-cultural differences interest managers?

Be on the lookout for a variety of cultural differences that

might cause misunderstandings. Among the most important

are differences in perceptions, non-verbal behaviours, atti-

tudes and values, personalities, and psychological contracts.

high context cultures 77

low context cultures 77

polychronicity 78

monochronicity 78

psychological contract 79

How can you develop your cross-cultural interactive skills?

Understand your tolerance for ambiguity. Although some

companies provide diversity and cross-cultural training,

many do not. You may be lucky enough to get some in-

depth coaching, but more likely you will have to read and

experience on your own. Understand culture shock.

tolerance for ambiguity 81

cultural intelligence 82

culture shock 82

How do you build trust in relationships?

Trust may be calculus-based, knowledge-based, or identi-

fi cation-based. Trust is both an emotional skill and a rela-

tional skill. It may be also a personality trait. Lying affects

relationships because people want to maintain relation-

ships, avoid confl ict, and avoid loss of face.

calculus-based trust 82

knowledge-based trust 83

identification-based trust 83

trust 83

distrust 83

How do you persuade others?

Key issues relate to the communicator, the message, and the

audience. Is the communicator credible and likable? Is the

message extreme? Content-rich? Effectively framed? What

Test YourselfSummary and Key Terms

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are the needs and mood of the audience? Can you change peo-

ple’s minds by applying the theory of cognitive dissonance?

attitudes 84

central route 84

peripheral route 84

credible communicator 85

likable communicator 85

framing 85

risky choice framing effect 85

attribute framing effect 86

cognitive dissonance theory 86

self-perception theory 86

What relational strengths do you already have? Which skills do you need to develop?

Assess your strengths and weaknesses. Learn what your

personal orientation to others is, and whether you are a

self-monitor. Practise active listening.

self-monitoring 87

personal orientation to others 88

active listening 89

closed questions 89

open questions 89

What are some tested tactics for doing well on job interviews?

Understand the importance of making a good fi rst impres-

sion and adopt an impression management strategy for the

interview.

first impression bias 91

Explorations

1. Look for opportunities to practise effective communication. Reading about communication is not enough. You have to

practise. Your school probably offers courses in communi-

cation, including public speaking and persuasion. Look for

those that emphasize hands-on practice.

2. Join Toastmasters International. Toastmasters International is an organization whose mis-

sion is to “make effective communication a worldwide

reality.” If your school has a Toastmasters Club, join it; if

not, check out the Toastmasters’ website at http://www.

toastmasters.org/ to fi nd experiential programs near you, at

a reasonable cost.

3. Gain cross-cultural experience: take an international student to lunch.

4. Take a semester abroad!

5. Read at your leisure . . . The classic book on persuasion is Dale Carnegie’s How to Win Friends and Infl uence People (New York: Pocket, 1990),

fi rst published in 1937 and still, amazingly, a best-seller.

6. Conduct further research on the web. To learn more about the GLOBE project and its fi ndings,

see http://business.nmsu.edu/programs-centers/globe/ . For

more on the world values survey, see http://www.worldval-

uessurvey.org/ .

M03_ANDR3721_01_SE_C03.indd 96 07/09/12 7:34 PM

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